Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate generally to integrated circuit devices, and more specifically to testing and validation of semiconductor chips, testing systems for semiconductor chips, liquid metal interconnects, and liquid metal alloys.
Background Information
The push for ever-smaller integrated circuits (IC) places enormous performance demands on the techniques and materials used to construct and test IC devices. In general, an integrated circuit chip is also known as a microchip, a silicon chip, a chip, or a die. IC chips are found in a variety of common devices, such as the microprocessors in computers, cars, televisions, CD players, and cellular phones. A plurality of IC chips are typically built on a wafer (for example, a thin silicon disk, having a diameter of 300 mm) and after processing the wafer is diced apart to create individual chips (dies or dice).
As part of the manufacturing process, dies are tested to confirm the functioning of the die and provide feedback for the manufacturing process. Testing complex semiconductor dies under controlled electrical, thermal, and mechanical conditions in a cost-effective manner presents challenges as the size of IC chips shrinks and the number of features associated with an individual chip increases.